AuthorTopic: USD or USF (Read 908 times)

ptforme

Time to drag this up again. I vote USD. More impressive faculty (many impressive names from Harvard are at SD), much higher CA bar pass rate (USF is hovering around low 60%, USD upper 70%), solid upper tier 2 (worrisome tier drop for USF), and a higher employment rate at graduation (USD 70%, USF #'s not reported which I believe is a poor sign), and finally a lower cost of living.

So why the debate? I'm living in SF now and love it. Despite being only a recent transplant, I can't imagine being happier someplace else. SD excites me, but I have only been once in my early teens.

In SD I can be the big fish in the small pond. In SF, I will be a mere dust mite amongst the oppresive swarm of hastings, stanford, ucla, boalt, and general t14 grads. Should I start out in SD, and try to work my way back up state? Or should I start out in SF with the odds stacked against me?

Yes, I have looked up the numbers in Martindale re USD grads in SF. I'm not sure how much weight to give this analysis, as I feel many grads are perfectly content to stay in SoCal.

If you want to stay in SF then go to USF. USD is a fine school but its not going to be any better for getting a job in san francisco. You can always try and transfer to hastings if you do well enough first semester.

When i visited USD earlier this week, I talked to one of the professors and he basically confirmed what you wrote, ptformme, in your last line. He thinks USD has a great southern california reputation but is not super well known nationally because noone wants to leave San Diego. He said that is their big concern, they are really trying to get people to branch out and spread USD's reputation. From my experience in sitting in on a simulated class, plus from faculty rankings I have seen, USD's professors are fantastic and very friendly and accomodating. Plus the campus is very nice, its in a very nice part of San Diego. That being said, if your heart is truly set on eventually coming back to SF, then USF may be the better bet as far as connections go, plus you may never want to leave San Diego.

ptforme

As a red sox fan, that decides it. I'm most worried about the bar pass rate differential 60% Barely over 1/2 pass on the first try? For all of the great things I have heard, that seems like a pretty stark draw back. ~90k later I don't want to be left out in the cold like that...

With regard to bar passage rates, I think we have a little bit of a causal ambiguity. That is, does a school have a low bar passage rate because they don't teach what you need to pass the bar, or do they have a low bar passage rate because they admit students who are more likely to slack on the test?

I think it's the latter. From what I've heard, if you go to a good school, they barely teach to the bar, and are more theoretical in their instruction. Most lawyers I've spoken to will also tell you that you need to take a Bar Prep course, and you will learn more black letter law in that 6 week course than in all of law school. So if you are confident that you can study for and pass the bar, it shouldn't make a difference where you go to school. They take the exact same exam whether they go to USF or USD. Stop looking at such a worthless statistic! I would focus more on job prospect factors, like region, median salaries, and strengths in particular practice areas.

Yeah i agree with Ron Hiatt and Starresky about the bar passage issue. Take Loyola LA for example, it has a fantastic local reputation for turning out great lawyers but their bar passage rate is lower than most of the other law schools, i think high 60's. Plus by the time you take the bar 2 years after you took first year courses, you would need to review with a bar review course anyway.